Overheard at a certain family Christmas gathering in Clio, Michigan:

“Ohhh. A trio of bunnies. We have to get the cute little bunnies.”
“A goat. But I want to buy a goat!”
“But did we buy a flood bucket? I really wanted a flood bucket.”
“I want to buy a goat!”
“Everybody’s got a water buffalo. Yours is fast and mine is slow. How much is a water buffalo? Then we could really sing the Veggie Tales song!”
“Hey, we’ve been reading a story about chickens. We could buy a flock of chicks.”

Ingredients:
-Lots of coins collected over the previous weeks and months
-Children, adults, family, friends
-Gift Catalogs from humanitarian relief and aid agencies like Heifer International

Instructions:
Children, adults, family, friends sit in a circle. Pile up coins in center of circle. Start sorting and counting. After totaling all money, peruse Gift Catalogs. Each person selects one gift they would especially like to purchase. Give each person a small sheet of paper and pencil. They write their one gift choice. Read and total gift choices and see if you have enough to buy it all! If not, start negotiating.

Additional Ideas:
*If some of the children, adults, family, or friends tend to be “big time spenders”, give each person a specific amount they can spend before perusing Gift Catalogs.
*For older participants, have each person choose what they’d like to spend the money on and give a sales pitch for why their purchase should be made.
*Take a few minutes to read or talk about what benefit specific gifts would bring to individuals and communities.
*Compare and contrast your daily life with those who might be receiving your gift.

What are my dreams this year? What could I do that is bigger than a resolution? I don’t know about you, but too often I get stuck in what needs to be completed tomorrow without seeing what I could change over the next three years. I read a book recently that lit an inspiring spark within me again. Donald Miller wrote this documentation of his life: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and it released me to dream again. If you haven’t read it, you should. Its about story and even greater it is about the story you are living or are you living a story at all? My friend Leroy Barber just wrote a new story in his life when he chose to ride 65 miles in Georgia on his bike for his birthday and raised over $6000 for the organization he leads. My wife, Andre, hiked the Grand Canyon this fall with some close friends and trained by putting 50 lbs of rocks in a backpack, then proceeded to walk all over the neighborhood and up and down stairs. I thought she was crazy, but in reality she was just dreaming bigger than me. These stories are remarkable. They are not just resolutions for a new year, they are dreams that inspire and challenge others in your community. A year ago, I was in a car ride looking at a little bird hanging from the rear view mirror and I was dreaming of creating plywood. After I told Andre about it, she thought I was crazy. After dreaming and conversation, we put this idea into action and now plywood is moving with momentum.

Here are three tips as you prepare for the New Year that are really simple and could help you pursue that new years dream for 2010:

What if?
Most of the greatest creations and innovations for social good start with this question. It was probably crazy, but someone asked. What if you actually pursued what you are passionate about? What if you went after it with everything within you choosing to stay up late at night? What if you wrote a remarkable story beyond what you have currently lived? What if it worked?

Two hours.
In the midst of our busy schedules, dreams end up moving to the backburner. A 144-character thought that you never pursue. Do this for me, please. Choose to focus for two hours and write down your dream. Describe what it would it look like? If this is dream you are chosen to do, you will be amazed at what will end up on that paper or on your document. If nothing comes out, let it go. At a minimum give your dream 2 hours to speak.

Use Somebody.
When you are done. Share it with a friend that believes in you and your abilities. Let them give you feedback. Ask them to dream with you. Create an action plan to begin and to start to experiment today. Invite them to join you in the story that is your tomorrow.

I used to spend a lot of time in Little 5 Points in Atlanta.  It’s a quirky little area with quite a bit of diversity, and as is the case in a lot of other Atlanta neighborhoods, it attracts a large homeless population.  In the time that I spent there, I became friends with a guy named David.  He is really friendly and outgoing.  Every time I was in Little 5 he would be hanging around and we’d have great conversations.  He didn’t have a job or a place to stay, so he was pretty eager to talk with anyone he could about whatever had planned for the next stage of life.  Eventually, my roommate heard about a job that seemed right up his alley, and he applied and got the job.  It was very exciting for David.  My roommate was the sweetest about it.  She would drive him to work every morning so he could get there on time, and then he would find his own way home after he had finished cleaning the office building where they both were working.  Eventually he asked if we would mind if he showered at our place before work.  We would wake up, and there David would sit playing a cheap guitar he’d been given, waiting for us to wake up and let him in so he could clean up before they left for work.  He came every morning.  He was never late.  Always sitting on the porch ready for the day.  Not long after, David met a girl, they had a baby and got married. They found their own place, David quit his job, and we didn’t see much of him anymore, until social services decided they had made one too many trips to the ER and took their baby.   His wife got pregnant again, and they took that baby too.  It was devastating to David and he started calling again wanting to talk about it.  He and his wife ended up getting a divorce, and now I’m back to seeing David around town.  The other day I saw him selling newspapers along the side of a busy road, just trying to make a few bucks.  He texted me after we saw each other and asked if I could get coffee.  I said no.  It’s not that I don’t trust him, or that I’m afraid of him.  If I’m really honest, there’s no good reason for it.  It just didn’t fit into my schedule, and I did not bother to find a time where he would fit.

A lot of times at night when I drive home, when I’m getting off of I-20 at Boulevard, there is a guy standing there with his dog, holding a sign asking for money. Sometimes I give him something, sometimes I don’t. I certainly haven’t talked with him before, but the other day when I was driving home some guys were in the car next to me and they told him they had money for him. Just as he started crossing the street to get it, they threw it on the ground so he had to chase the money. I got all misty eyed as I watched him hunched over, running up and down the street trying to get the money, losing a little more of his dignity.

I want to judge those guys for throwing money on the ground and making the man on the side of the road chase it, but really, what am I doing to restore the dignity of broken people in my neighborhood?  I let a man shower in my home and sometimes even sleep on the couch, yet when he wanted a cup of coffee and to talk, I couldn’t find time for him.  So what am I going to do about David?  How am I going to help him understand that he has more dignity than I give him credit for?  He’s worth more than the few bucks he makes selling newspapers Sunday mornings.

So, I’m wondering, what are you doing to restore the dignity and humanity to the people around you?  What are you tempted to judge in others that actually is also true in your own life?

I’m sitting in the living room of my house looking at a pile of nicely wrapped presents. They kind of look ready to be opened but I have these strange tradition around Christmas, one of which is that I won’t even feel the presents before Christmas Day, just in case my anticipation turns out to be too optimistic and I end up disappointed when I open them! I know, I’m a touch pessimistic. This Christmas my wife and I have been having a go at our third year of Just Christmas, a locally run campaign to re-imagine what Christmas could be. The challenge of it was to take on the craziness of uncontrolled consumerism that encourages us to spend more and more and more, to re-introduce creativity as a key attribute of Christmas, and to be slightly less rich so that others might be less poor. When it kicked off 3 years ago, inspired by the Advent Conspiracy movement in the US, the aim was to still enjoy Christmas and absolutely not to be miserable people that told everyone else how bad it was to buy presents. But what if there was an alternative to just spend, spend, spend?

Since then I’ve seen people who’ve engaged with Just Christmas, offer family photos, a list of shared memories, short stories, paintings, time with relatives, knitting, baking etc. People have taken more time to think about the presents they buy, and to introduce more creativity and relationship into the present giving. The goal originally was to half what was spent on Christmas (presents, food, travel, party frocks, going out etc). Apparently (no, we couldn’t believe it either), an average two parents, two kids family in the UK spends an extra £4,250 (c.$6,800) over the Christmas period. What if we could reduce it? And a community of people in Edinburgh took up the challenge and it has begun to bear fruit. 3 years on the idea of halving what was halved and then halved again leaves the non-maths gurus confused and so now the focus is on giving, rather than the precise percentages.

We’ve also seen the benefits of cutting the spending on the presents, because the other 50% the community didn’t spend was contributed to a fund that was given away to help empower people in India. A group (250 million of them) broadly known as the Dalit people make up the lowest caste system of Indian society. As a result they are deemed less than human and restricted from much of the education system, most jobs other than scavenging and toilet cleaning and corpse carrying. The children are destined to be seen as “untouchable” by many other Indians, despite the caste system being outlawed and many anti-discrimination laws being passed by the Indian Government. The community that engaged with Just Christmas managed to work with a charity that worked in India to help build schools to teach the children English (the language of empowerment) and taught women to save and start micro-finance groups, that started micro-enterprises and launched advocacy campaigns in India and globally. Just Christmas hasn’t just raised the money and handed over the cheques, many of the community have taken trips to India and encouraged and talked and listened to the people of this most amazing of countries. It’s all about empowering, just as Peter Greer mentioned in the earlier post about Hope International.

I love Christmas. I love what is stands for, I love the time with family and I love all of the old traditions and family practices that only make sense to those closest to us. Just Christmas is one little small story of a way of engaging with it that brings out some of the values of Christmas of creating, becoming a little less rich so that others might become a little less poor, and giving gifts in relationship to one another.

Creativity. Giving. Justice. It’s just Christmas.

What stories have you heard this Christmas that have inspired you?

The Guatemalan Civil War is the longest civil war in Latin American history. The war ran from 1960 to 1996. It had a profound impact on Guatemala. Several thousand people disappeared during the war and approximately 200,000 were killed. One of the reasons for the war was the economic and social discrimination against Guatemala’s indigenous peoples, many of them Mayan. The indigenous people made up more than half of Guatemala’s total population. Since the war ended, many of the Mayan women have been left widowed from the loss of their loved ones. Now, more than 12 years later many are still recovering.

We are currently focused on one city widely referred to as ChiChi, home of the largest market in Central America, where we are helping bring homes to these women. The above picture is an image of the feet of a woman that moved into a home we built. The stories written on those feet are endless. Please take 20 seconds to see what we are building in Guatemala. When you buy our bags and wallets, this is what you are helping build. We are going in February to build a new house. Help us make it a reality – buy a bag for a friend, share this story and be part of changing a life this Christmas season.

WIDOW HOME BUILD from PLYWOOD PEOPLE on Vimeo.

Clint Eastwood has directed a masterpiece with a message that is far greater than a movie can normally promise. I know everyone is enamored by the creative brilliance of Avatar this season, but don’t miss out on becoming a better leader, social innovator and historian by watching Invictus. The film tells an inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freemon) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team (played by Matt Damon) to help unite South Africa. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation is threatened by racial and economic division in the wake of apartheid. This image was captured perfectly in the opening visual scene with a camera roll separating the black kids playing soccer on one side of the road and the white team playing rugby on the other side of the road, separated by two fences and a dirt road. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela inspires South Africa’s rugby team to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match. Yes, I was inspired by the effort of the sporting team. Yes, I was impressed by the story of the team defeating odds through teamwork and determination. But, I was most impressed with Nelson Mandela. This story made me want to learn more about his life and get into the mind of a modern day liberator. Mandela may be the most inspiring living leaders that many of us have never known.

Mandela is a leader of social change unlike many of us have ever imagined. Below are a few insights I learned about leading social change through the lens of Nelson Mandela:

1. To create social change, leaders must have a vision above the crowds to see what others do not see.
2. To integrate social change, leaders must inspire potential influential people not currently using their influence.
3. To prioritize social change, leaders must unite unlikely people groups in unusual places.
4. To lead social change, leaders must live what is spoken and prioritize the vision with their lifestyle.
5. To win social change, leaders must smile and be winsome to all people.
6. To inspire social change, leaders must let others embrace the vision and gain a personal responsibility.
7. To focus on social change, leaders must not be distracted by others peoples prioritized important initiatives.
8. To celebrate social change, leaders must not be in hurry to move on, be encouraged in the moment of transformation and enjoy the party.

Gift Card Giver is a new form of giving. We take unused gift cards and give them to people and organizations in great need. This project was the first initiative by plywood and was started three years ago. This month, we have had the opportunity to celebrate the fact that we have given away over $45,000 in unused gift cards and national awareness through great articles in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and FoxBusiness.com, along with numerous other radio promotion and blog features. Yesterday, CNN aired a our story and we hope you choose to share it with others as we continue to develop a community of innovators addressing social need.

©2008 Ryan Patrick Clarke Photograph

Sarah Nun has worked in youth development for over a decade, and is the Vice President of Mental Karate—an organization that has helped youth take over 100,000 inspired actions across the U.S. and Canada. She has served as the executive editor for numerous publications, including the highly acclaimed book Team Clock: A Guide to Breakthrough Teams. Sarah earned a Bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College, and is currently completing her Master’s in Sociology at DePaul University in Chicago. Her documentary film researching vocational trends among recent college graduates in urban environments is due for release in 2010.

Gisele Nelson:  You’re doing a documentary with 20-somethings.  Why are you doing it?

Sarah Nun: I’m producing a filmic ethnography for the thesis portion of my graduate work in sociology. I am using film as a means to capture the cultural context and articulate the lived experience of a particular cohort. I am looking at recent college graduates who have migrated to major urban areas. In particular, I am interested in their attitudes toward vocation. To a certain extent it is a study of privilege. People with college degrees have more job options, so vocation becomes somewhat of a luxury item. I have been filming folks in Chicago, Atlanta, and Portland, Oregon over the past three years.

Gisele: Explain what you’re hoping to accomplish with this project.

SARAH: My research is a reaction to neatly packaged theories about what has been called the “creative class” (see: Richard Florida) – highly educated, analytical people who bring an unprecedented set of expectations to their jobs. These theories also extend to dialogue about globalization, information technology, and urban development. I wanted to show a more comprehensive picture of what a member of said “creative class” experiences on a daily basis. How do they go about making decisions about where to live, work, and spend their time? What characterizes their interpersonal relationships? What are the values that drive the structure of their lives? What are the inherent challenges?

Gisele: With all the interviews you are doing, what are the most consistent threads you are seeing?

Sarah: One of the most significant observations is a redefinition of class. Traditionally, class has been understood in economic terms of lower, middle and upper. While these definitions still exist to some extent, there is a greater emphasis on class as cultural affiliation. You have attorneys and baristas sharing virtually the same lifestyle outside of their job. This isn’t just a matter of shared hobbies or coincidental neighbors, but rather people hold loose ties to the corporations/entities for which they work.

On the other hand—and this seems contradictory at first glance—there is more weight attached to one’s vocation. One’s job is viewed as an extension of one’s self, an expression of one’s values. If someone is an attorney or doctor it is because they feel compelled to use their resources (brains, money, educational opportunities) to help people. If someone is a barista it is rarely because they love making coffee. Rather, in many cases it is an expression of voluntary downward mobility. They’re rebelling against their family’s connections to higher paying jobs, rebelling against corporate America (unless, of course they’re working for a corporately owned coffee shop), or they simply choose the relaxed life-style that offers them more flexibility to pursue what they really want to do—their art or non-profit work, the business they are starting on the side.

With the rising significance of cultural affiliation comes a greater emphasis on location, because culture is mostly concentrated geographically. What this means is people follow culture rather than jobs. People in this cohort migrate to cities that possess the lifestyles with which they identify, rather than where jobs are available. It is more likely they would relocate out of boredom or a general sense of dissatisfaction with their life than for a job opportunity.

Gisele:  Why do you think it’s important to talk about the changing career trends of this generation of workers?

SARAH: It’s important because it’s happening on a large scale and is indicative of a generational mindset. The promise that a briefcase and corner office will bring happiness has mostly faded. People are looking for one of two things – either a job that is in line with their deepest passions, or a job that provides enough flexibility to allow them to pursue their deepest passions outside of work. However, in fleeing an unfulfilling job, an almost spiritual expectation is attached to vocation. If your job is supposed to be the expression of your values and personality, if the emphasis is on finding a vocation that uniquely suits your talents and interests and makes you deeply happy, can any job meet these qualifications?

As with any trend, these experiences are not true for everyone. For many people a job is still just a job – a means to an end. And plenty of people are still working hard to climb the corporate ladder. But the reality is that in today’s economy more job security actually resides with those who chase the aforementioned sense of dissatisfaction. A good resume is one that is saturated with diverse experiences and a person who is able to think outside the box.

Gisele: Why do you think the importance has shifted from merely bringing in a paycheck to working in a job where their passions lie?

SARAH: Most significantly it is a result of globalization. As factory jobs have moved overseas, well-paying jobs in the United States have increasingly become information based – creating the need for higher education. Globalization has also shown us the insecurity of corporate affiliation. White collar jobs are now being off shored in increasing number. Today’s job security is necessarily tied to the constant accumulation of knowledge, a multidimensional resume, and a sense of autonomy that allows one to shift vocations seamlessly. So, the shift has occurred as a means to survival, but is intensified by the fact that the more knowledge one accumulates the less a mundane job seems bearable. People who have been trained to think analytically become frustrated when a job doesn’t cater to their strongest skill set.

Gisele:  Are there any negatives you see coming out of this or do you think it’s a mostly positive change and why?

SARAH:  I definitely think there can be some negative consequences. On some level these trends are expression of dissatisfaction, entitlement and a post-modern obsession with one’s own identity. If you follow the mindset through you end up with a world where your job, city, relationships, place of worship, everything should exist to make you happy. Although many in this cohort are focused on social justice and working in non-profit, there is the looming threat that even this can be an avenue to self-satisfaction – i.e. an escape from a less fulfilling job and a way to ease one’s own guilt. In the end, perhaps it doesn’t matter whether we work to make the world a better place out of purity of motive or not – as long as the job gets done. But what will we do when we get tired of our causes? Do we want to live in a world where a sense of obligation has nearly disappeared?

Gisele:  In your research, what are you finding out about how these trends overall affect culture?

SARAH:  I think all good social research shows us our story is larger than ourselves. The twenty-three-year old who graduates from a Midwestern university with a B.A. in English and moves to Seattle because the city sounds cool, who passes up an office job to stock groceries for $8.00 an hour so he has more flexibility with his band’s practice schedule, and who after a couple of years decides to go do relief work in Latin America before then enrolling in graduate school – is not, in reality, a very individualistic story. Understanding the world as a collection of trends is important because it shows us what our cultural values are, what the education system, technological developments, and even public policy has done to shape the way we invest ourselves. Conversely, we can understand how this generation is shaping these entities.  There is much to grapple with regarding the sense of dissatisfaction characterizing this generation. Dissatisfaction compels us to move forward, but can also be self-serving and misappropriated when we expect things like jobs, cities and even people to fulfill longings in the human soul that they can never satisfy.

I have been working at an urban health center that serves the poor and underserved in Atlanta for 3 years now. In making this decision to work here, I desired to learn a lot about complex medical diseases and hopefully make a difference in showing my patients they deserved quality medical care, even if they couldn’t afford it. What I was not prepared for was a daily position of advocacy and really needing to “fight” for my patients to receive proper medical care.

Mr. Smith (name has been changed to protect patient privacy), is one such example. If there is one thing I accomplish at this current medical center, it is that this man gets the surgery he needs.

Mr. Smith, a 52 year old African American male, first came to me because he was having some hip pain. In our conversation I immediately noticed his sweet demeanor, kind smile, and quiet determination to continue to work through this pain he was experiencing. As I asked more questions, I found out that he was a janitor at a church for the last 25 years and the church did not provide him any health insurance. He didn’t mind though, because he really has been healthy and not needed any medical care. For 25 years he has been moving tables and chairs for church banquets, cleaning Sunday school rooms, and vacuuming the church floors. Throughout our visit he made it very clear that he wanted to figure out what was happening with his hips and return to work as soon as possible.

Well, this hip pain turned out to be a very serious condition called Avascular Necrosis, which is basically a deterioration of his hip bones that can only be fixed by getting hip replacement surgery. For the next 6 months, Mr. Smith’s hips rapidly worsened till finally he was unable to walk and came to his appointments in a wheelchair. He is now unable to work and his brother had to move from New York to help care for him, and I was unable to get him the surgery he needed since he did not have insurance.

We are now in the process of applying for disability, so that maybe he can get disability insurance and possibly get the surgery. Mr. Smith always is the one to remind me that he will return to work as soon as he gets this surgery.

As I watched him deteriorate every month, I found myself enraged with the injustice of the situation, even angry at the church for not helping this man who faithfully served the church for the last 25 years, and fighting for this man’s right to continue to work as a janitor (something that he loved). I call the head of the surgery department monthly to plead for the importance of the surgery, I fill out pages and pages of disability papers, and I strive to keep Mr. Smith’s hope alive that the surgery will happen. Now I know that this is not the church’s or medical institution’s fault—this is just a situation gone bad with no one person to blame.

As I was thinking about him this morning and thinking that a whole year has now gone by and he still has not gotten his surgery, I do not feel like a failure, I have tried, I have persisted and I have fought and will continue to fight for this man, and I know that he is thankful for someone fighting for him when he was unable.

I think we all have someone like this that we know in our life, someone that needs a voice, and needs someone to jump on their side and fight for something with them. Maybe it is just for that person to not feel alone, or maybe it is for justice to prevail in their life. Who is this person in your life? What will you do today?

I’m sitting in the living room of my house looking at a pile of nicely wrapped presents. They kind of look ready to be opened but I have these strange tradition around Christmas, one of which is that I won’t even feel the presents before Christmas Day, just in case my anticipation turns out to be too optimistic and I end up disappointed when I open them! I know, I’m a touch pessimistic. This Christmas my wife and I have been having a go at our third year of Just Christmas, a locally run campaign to re-imagine what Christmas could be. The challenge of it was to take on the craziness of uncontrolled consumerism that encourages us to spend more and more and more, to re-introduce creativity as a key attribute of Christmas, and to be slightly less rich so that others might be less poor. When it kicked off 3 years ago, inspired by the Advent Conspiracy movement in the US, the aim was to still enjoy Christmas and absolutely not to be miserable people that told everyone else how bad it was to buy presents. But what if there was an alternative to just spend, spend, spend?

Since then I’ve seen people who’ve engaged with Just Christmas, offer family photos, a list of shared memories, short stories, paintings, time with relatives, knitting, baking etc. People have taken more time to think about the presents they buy, and to introduce more creativity and relationship into the present giving. The goal originally was to half what was spent on Christmas (presents, food, travel, party frocks, going out etc). Apparently (no, we couldn’t believe it either), an average two parents, two kids family in the UK spends an extra £4,250 (c.$6,800) over the Christmas period. What if we could reduce it? And a community of people in Edinburgh took up the challenge and it has begun to bear fruit. 3 years on the idea of halving what was halved and then halved again leaves the non-maths gurus confused and so now the focus is on giving, rather than the precise percentages.

We’ve also seen the benefits of cutting the spending on the presents, because the other 50% the community didn’t spend was contributed to a fund that was given away to help empower people in India. A group (250 million of them) broadly known as the Dalit people make up the lowest caste system of Indian society. As a result they are deemed less than human and restricted from much of the education system, most jobs other than scavenging and toilet cleaning and corpse carrying. The children are destined to be seen as “untouchable” by many other Indians, despite the caste system being outlawed and many anti-discrimination laws being passed by the Indian Government. The community that engaged with Just Christmas managed to work with a charity that worked in India to help build schools to teach the children English (the language of empowerment) and taught women to save and start micro-finance groups, that started micro-enterprises and launched advocacy campaigns in India and globally. Just Christmas hasn’t just raised the money and handed over the cheques, many of the community have taken trips to India and encouraged and talked and listened to the people of this most amazing of countries. It’s all about empowering, just as Peter Greer mentioned in the earlier post about Hope International.

I love Christmas. I love what is stands for, I love the time with family and I love all of the old traditions and family practices that only make sense to those closest to us. Just Christmas is one little small story of a way of engaging with it that brings out some of the values of Christmas of creating, becoming a little less rich so that others might become a little less poor, and giving gifts in relationship to one another.

Creativity. Giving. Justice. It’s just Christmas.

What stories have you heard this Christmas that have inspired you?